Review of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

This is one of those famous and influential anime (like Evangelion) that changed the way future productions approached their topics. Unlike Evangelion it is pretty consistently fun and not overly serious. The basic idea is that Haruhi is someone with the power to rewrite the world as she sees fit, but she doesn’t know it and therefore has to be kept happy or her boredom will lead to catastrophic changes or the creation of a whole new world in place of this one. And so the SOS Brigade is formed, an afterschool club designed by Haruhi to serve her every whim and woefully underthought idea. Haruhiis just a fun character. She’s wildly unpredictable and her crazed enthusiasm and oblivious superpowers cause an endless series of problems for Kyon, our lead. Kyon is basically a cynical and lazy highschooler who has a sarcastic aside for everything and holds himself as too cool to be involved in any of this stuff. His frustrated yet resigned narration is a big part of what holds the series together. And then we get the three people trying to hold Harumi back, an esper, an alien, and a time-traveller. Because of course.

The series is typical school-based adventure with the supernatural twists only appearing to explain why everyone goes along with Haruhi or to make the situation so unbearable or dangerous that the team needs to go into action. Which isn’t to say that supernatural situations are kept to a minimum. There’s one arc of eight episodes where they’re stuck in a time loop so the plot just repeats over and over again with minimal changes. It’s a bold idea that doesn’t totally work, but the overall effect does stand out.

I enjoyed the series overall, mostly because Haruhi and Kyon are such fun characters and because the absurd situations they get into are great. The supporting cast was rather weak though, with the three special people never really clicking for me as anything but plot devices. There’s no real overarching story, which surprised me a bit because it keeps seeming to suggest there’ll be one, but the story arcs are rather long and tend to be different and interesting. It was an enjoyable light entertainment affair with no real emotional hook or depth. But I enjoyed it.